Wednesday 21 May 2014

First World War Inspired Gardens.

We have been watching Chelsea Flower Show this week and I thought Charlotte Rowe: "No Man's Land' garden was very poignant and incredibly beautiful.  The garden replicates the landscape created on the first world battlefields.  Mother nature always takes over and transforms the theatre of war into a picture of beauty.  Even the shell crater holes fill with rain water and soon become teeming with flora, fauna and all manner of wildlife.

The garden reminded me of when we visited the lost gardens of Heligan about sixteen years a go.  We looked around the old gardens bothy and saw the estate gardeners names scribbled on the walls were the ate their nose bag, drank their 'nice cup of tea' and no doubt talked about the forthcoming first world war.  I bet they said:

"It will be over by Christmas."

Wasn't it Bread who wrote that incredible song: "If a picture could paint a thousand words"?  Gardeners paint some really inspiring pictures and old mother nature throws in the magic dust and gilds the lily.  

4 comments:

  1. Hi John. I think gardening is art. We use our spades and rakes and hoes and nature is the canvas that we paint with her. I also liked the Birmingham City Council part over grown allotment garden. Congratulations to the BBC for an excellent Chelsea Flower Show coverage this year. Thanks for your comment!

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  2. A gfew years ago at Malvern show they had some victory gardens that were really interesting
    I know what you mean about it the old gardeners sat talking about the forth coming war. They were all just normal people who just wanted to live a simple life and so many never had that opportunity.
    Can't get your picture to load so going to have to Google the garden!

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  3. I would have loved to see the Victory gardens at Malvern show, Kev. A lot of the allotments in England came about because of the cargo ships being sunk during the First World War. Germany attempted to starve Britain and railway companies and councils allowed people to grow their own food. Even today allotments are sold off to housing companies. In Denmark there is a preservation order on allotments to to keep them for future generations.

    Sorry you can't see the 'No Man's Land '. It works perfectly on my blog. You can see it on You Tube.

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